Arizona weekly citizen., 1887-09-10
A GREAT PROBLEM.
The Future Water Supply for the Southwest.
The Advantage of Water storage and Arte'
 sian Wells for Irrigating Purposes-

,iated with the future development or fhe vest is the simple question ot the of incfeasIng the amount ot Available water. All otber matters gre of collateral importance. Wbiie the utmost capabilities of the arid re- vions of the west in the matter Of msiu- taining population may not as yet been reached. each day witnesses ID, the older a growing inability to sup mort anv additional increase m the num- her of inhabitants under the existing. or der of things. aud leaves no room to ooubt that future loss and hardship must come to all. unless the increase m IS by some means restricied, or some provision IS made by which ns- ture may be assisted in maintaining the same by rendering productive the orosd acres which she has so lavishiy be- slowed.
 Laying aside, ss too hypothetical for ordinary discussion. the numerous pro posed plans ofinereasing the amount or rslnfsll there remains bus two ways oy which the supply ot water can oe made more available and valuable Tor the pur- pose of retaining lands now uIPro, ductiye. namely. artificial reservoirs and artesian wells.
 The first method-the storage of wa ter by the artificial reseryoirs-is one or the oldest systems known to man, hay ing been in use from the remotest times in all irrigHting countries. Massive ana costly works of th,s character, built Ike the pyramids Rs If to defy the destroy ing agencies of time, stlll render pro ductive millions of acres m India, Per sis, North Afuce, Spain. Italy, Mexico and Centrsl America. long even BtteI tradition has forgotten ths storles oi their construction. In the United S.ateF. Colorado and California have both dem opstrated the prscticsbilitY Of the same system ss applied to American Rgrieul- ture. The largest reservoir m thls country being one in Bear valley, CAli- foruis, where a wall of solid masonry three hundred feet long. holds ID reserve A supply of water sufficient to irTigste annually fifty thousand acres Of land' constructed at the nominal cost Of SOO. 900. In northern Arizona there fs now being completed q sImIlsr reservoir, ca pable of storing 100000 gallons Of va ter, sufficient to irrIgste annually lOO, 900 acres of land, and what is more, the long debated question whether sufficient water could be obtained to fill such b dam, has been solved m the most sstls- factory manner. namely, its being nllec: The cost of the reservoir last mentioned has been but a little over quarter Of 6 million dollars, a small sum when con sidered m connection with the results obtained.
 It is not difficult to conceive what the establishment of comprehensive sys- tenn of such reservoirs in the west would accomplish. Take the head waters of the Colorado, the Rio Grsnde and oib- 1T prominent streams Rs the base of operations. and by tue construction of artificial reservoirs for the cachemen, of their waters. the key IS obtained whereby may be unlocked the golden wealth of a million square miles of land, one-third the area of the entire Union,
 The vast arid region which. accord ing to Powell extends from the l00,h meridian 10 the coast range, and from the boundary of British America to the line of Mexico, sn area i've times larger than France or Germany, and more than fourteen times greater than the British Isles combined. with all it's great posi- bilities can only by some such means be rendered capable of meeting the de- mapds which our rspidily increasing population IS each day more urgently pressing upon if.
 The wors snd expense which will be necessarily involved in retaining this vast empire, will bs enormous, too enormous. iD fact. Co ever admit of its being consummsted by IndIvidusl cor poratIons, especially as title to the lands SO reclaimed under our existing land laws can apply to but a very limited area, totally disproportionate to tEe capital expended. National or inter- state enterprise must b. relied on, and the same principle invoked as has act usted the general government In the expenditure it has msde of public funds in river and harbOr Improvements. To DO other way could either nation or state accomplish greater good for the cOun- try by the expenditure of surplus revenues; and the vast wealth that would be thus added to the nations capital would more than make good any outlay incurred. The area of land affected would be not less than 6i0,O00,0G0 acres, and for every one reclaimed the government could at once secure a purchaser at the same prices now paid for other public lands, while @ perpetual revenue in in- ternational taxes would be insured as long es the years rolled on. Less ex- tensive. because less important, are the reclamation of public lands is the se- curing of srtesien water.
 What may be accomplished by this agency is shown by the success which has attended the efforts of the French engineers woo have been engaged for the last two years in retaining for sg- ricultursl purposes a portion of the great Sahara dessert of northern, Africa, probably the most uninviting field ID the world for such iabors. Attracted by s grant of twenty five thousand acres Of spparantly worthless land made by the Bey ot luDis to whomsoever would sink successfully 6rsesian wells, Paris company Was formed and a limited cap itsl of cne hundred thousand francs sub scribed merely to test the possibility of making valuable She tract. The fr-t we'll at depth of twelve hundred feet se- cured enough water to irrigate S75 acres.
 Encouraged by this, two additional wells were driven, and the flow of water obtained from the three was all that was required to iu5gste an area of nearly eight thousand acres. While it is not the object of thia article to deal with de- tails. the average expense per foot o. sinking the wells in question as stated in the report Of the company. is 70 in teressing thsi we feel excused for giving 1t. It IS as follows. reduced from francs and the standards of the metric system to equivalents ID our own currency and measurements.
 For the first one hundred feet the cost was e per foot, and increased st the average of eighty-five cents per foot for each one hundred feet of additional depth to a depth of five hundred feet. where the expense increased at the rate of S1.20 per foot for each one hundred feet until water was struck ss a depth of trifie over HOO feet. To more plaiu- ly illustrate 1t. the expense per each one hundred feet was as follows:
 First 100 feet co
 Second 100 feet. ... 2S5
 ThIrd 100 feet. t........3 8 70
 Fourth 10O feet. 455
 Fifth 100 feet 40